If you read the mountain rescue reports after each winter, you can see that the #1 cause of death, for climbers, is poor navigation – not falling when climbing. Back in the days of good winters, you would get 5-10 climbers fall down five finger gully on the Ben having breezed up some Grade 5 climb, then then strolled off a cliff for lack of attention / navigation skills.
Forget which make of axe / crampon, if there’s one thing you need to master it’s a map, compass, pacing and holding your nerve in a white out. I used to teach this to students, many years ago, I’d take them out in the Cairngorms on the Plateau, walk until they were all disorientated and actually scared shitless, then get them to navigate back pace by pace – it’s a skill which will save your life in winter more than an ice axe ever will.
The problem with the Alps is no one goes out in bad weather, whereas in Scotland, you walk / climb almost regardless of the weather (otherwise you’d never get out), so Scottish Winter walking is way tough than Alpine stuff (in terms of Navigation).
A great pair of books on the subject is Martin Moran’s ‘The Munros in Winter’ and ‘Scottish Winter Mountains’.
